With the start of two-a-day practices a little more than a month away, high school football teams are prepping for the preseason with weight training, conditioning drills, and a litany of various camps.
There are passing camps, receiving camps, prospect camps, 7 on 7 camps—the list is innumerable. But what about something for the linemen?
You know, the five young men up front doing the dirty work, only being noticed when something goes wrong or, the rare of event of a “fat-guy touchdown.” Otherwise, linemen are relegated to the shadows to work in obscurity.
Their skill-position teammates know their value and praise it often, but seldom are their names or efforts mentioned in the highlights.
A high school lineman plays for the love of the game. He knows he’s not getting his name in the paper on Saturday morning for making a great block. He also knows that if he doesn’t make that block, the electrifying play doesn’t happen. His team doesn’t score, and maybe it costs them the game. But come Saturday morning during film session, he’s going to get his butt chewed out for not making that block. The average football player may not even know what blocks are made to score a touchdown.
Those are the words of Doug Campbell, former lineman and assistant coach for the Shadyside Tigers. He’s felt that pain of anonymity that players wearing numbers 50 through 79 share.
That was the main premise in 2010, when Campbell came up with the Shadyside Big Cat Linemen Challenge, which, after a year’s hiatus, returns July 23 at Fleming Field in Shadyside. Give those big guys a chance to be in the limelight for once and be recognized.
It also gave Campbell an idea; he got out of coaching about the same time Tigers’ legendary coach Ty Fleming hung up his whistle.
Campbell set off to do some research online for a linemen challenge. He quickly adjusted his search parameters after his initial inquiries produces results for electrical lineman. What he found were events from Florida, Texas, and even California. He found events he liked and felt would work, put his ideas together, and approached Bud Davis, the president of the Shadyside Boosters organization about his idea.
“We sat down and went over some things, made a few revisions, and presented it to the organization to see if there was any interest,” Campbell recalled. “They voted to help me put it on, and away we went.”
What is the BCLC?
This isn’t a position clinic. There’s no individualized instruction on the backside protect techniques or cut blocks. This is purely a skills-based competition, pitting lineman against lineman, both individually, and as part of five-man, school-based teams.
It consists of six individual scored events: The sled pull, tire flip, sandbag fill, bench press (how many reps of 185 pounds in 1-minute), medicine ball put for distance, and a pro agility drill.
There are also four scored team events, three separate, plus the team totals from the bench press: the obstacle course relay, the farmer’s walk relay, and the truck push.
Speed helps in some events, yes. But this is about strength, toughness, and determination. All traits your average offensive lineman exhibits on a daily basis.
“This will be our first year on turf so, in the past, I had to tweak some things to make sure they worked on grass,” Campbell said. “What you see today is just about the same thing as it was 12 years ago, maybe with a few modifications.
“The team and individual events were developed as we tried to figure out a system of splitting the events into teams and individuals.”
And teams, they do come, both from inside the OVAC, and out.
Campbell noted there are 20, five-man teams signed up already from 11 different schools, including non-OVAC participants Claymont and Malvern. Teams from farther way like Johnstown Northridge and Canal Fulton NW have also traveled to Shadyside to compete in the past as word traveled and interested increased for the competition.
In 2019, the BCLC experienced its biggest draw, with 27 teams from 15 different schools.
“It is rewarding when some of the non-OVAC schools join us because it shows that we are reaching out to not just conference schools, but to schools around the tri-state area,” Campbell said. “I do a lot of advertising, primarily on social media, and focus on Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.”
Campbell noted as much as he loves seeing schools from outside the valley make the trip; he wishes more OVAC teams would make the decision to field a team for the event.
“I just wish more local schools would give their linemen a chance to participate in a competition designed specifically for them,” Campbell said. “If they tried it, I believe they would find it to be a very rewarding competition.”
Awards, Scholarships, and Good Eats, Oh My
The top three individual winners in each event are given a medal. The individual with the highest combined score in all the events is named the Big Cat Award Winner.
The previous ‘Big Cat’ was St. Clairsville’s Isaak Myers. Before him, John Marshall’s Hunter Temple won the competition two years in a row. Temple owns the best mark in three of the six individual events.
The records and previous winners can be found here at the BCLC web page. It also lists the student athletes who were awarded scholarships at the camp, an added bonus for a couple deserving participants.
Temple helped fuel a five-year championship run by the Monarchs in the team competition, as the top scoring team is honored with the Iron Wall award. John Marshall won from 2015-2019.
The Monarchs won’t be back for number six, however, as they aren’t competing this year. That means a new champion will come from those schools. The last team to win prior was Canal Fulton NW in 2014. The last OVAC team not named JM? That would be River in 2013.
The Pilots are annual participants, as are the Buckeye Trail Warriors and the Monroe Central Seminoles, especially under former longtime head coach Jay Circosta.
The participants put in the work and those winning are rewarded with medals. Each participant also receives a free Big Cat camp shirt. They are also fed, but this isn’t your average hot dogs, burgers, and a bag of chips meal. No sir.
The Shadyside Boosters, under the direction of Bud and Lorie Davis, organize the lunch for the athletes. Yes, the grill gets fired up, and there are burgers and hot dogs, but Dom DeFelice also donates sausage every year. There are salads, fruits, veggies, dips, baked beans, coleslaw, brownies, cupcakes, and cookies, to name a few.
“You name it; we’ve got it,” Campbell said. “That’s not to mention the incredible number of drinks donated by Mr. Doug Longenette and his crew at United Dairy.”
Campbell is trying to convince his son, a volunteer official at the camp, to smoke some brisket and pulled pork.
No stone goes unturned in working to make this a first-class event for all involved. It takes a number of volunteers and sponsors to pull off.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our support from the business community,” Campbell said. “They are incredible with their support. The support of Ohio Valley businesses, as well as Tiger alumni, has been incredible.”
Sponsors include the following: OH/WV Excavating, Ohio River Aggregate, Melanko Construction, Quality Environmental Services, Kinetic Networking, DeFelice Bros. Pizza, Raze International, United Dairy, Belmont Savings Bank, Mr. Steve Rosser (SHS Class of ’77), Dr. Robert Caldwell, DDS( Class of 77), Johnson Bros. Automotive, Neurobehavioral Medicine Associates, and Tony Francis.
There are a few spots left according to the BCLC Facebook page, so Campbell encourages any team still interested to register their squad and sign up.
